Gavin Steingo

Gavin Steingo is a Professor of Music at Princeton University, affiliated with programs in Media and Modernity, African Studies, and Jazz Studies. He holds a B.M. from the New England Conservatory and a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. His research explores sound and music as foundational elements in the construction of global modernity, with a focus on African music, sound studies, acoustic ecology, and music-philosophy intersections.

Steingo’s major works include Kwaito’s Promise: Music and the Aesthetics of Freedom in South Africa (2016), which won the Alan P. Merriam Prize, and Interspecies Communication: Sound and Music Beyond Humanity (forthcoming). His current project investigates avant-garde artists’ roles in environmental activism through whale song analysis. He co-edits the Critical Conjunctures in Music and Sound series for OUP and runs the Animal Song Collective with Jairo Moreno.

He has received prestigious awards including the Humboldt Fellowship and Getty Research Institute residency. His teaching spans musicology, African performance studies, and sound cultures. Steingo’s work bridges scholarship and creative practice, including collaborations with artists like Kapwani Kiwanga and recordings with Venda singer Jininka Nkanyane.